Last thoughts at The Final Valley
by vegetasei's prince
Summary: The last thoughts of a Hero and an Avenger, the final clash in the valley where it all started. warnings : multiple character deaths, minor coarse language. Rated m to be safe.
1. Hero

A/N: its been done before so no points for originality. i'm going to write a full story in the naruto world soon and i wanted to start off with this. enjoy this one-shot

Tears at The Final Valley

Once more, with a Chidori through my chest I wonder how we came to this point. My friend, my trusted comrade, my brother; Sasuke... How did it end up here?

It's funny really if you think about it. We christened this place with our first serious fight, that for once wasn't stopped, and a Chidori through my chest. Now we're rechristening it with our last fight. Same circumstances... Bet you'd laugh if you heard me using that word in a sentence, probably say some smart-ass thing like:

"Don't hurt your brain, dobe."

And my weak comeback would probably be:

"Fuck you, Sasuke!"

I should actually say we re-rechristened this place. I mean the first two people to fight here christened it well enough. After all they did create this waterfall with their jutsu. There was a time when that fact impressed me.

It's funny; they say the more things change the more they stay the same. And they don't know how right they are about that. A Hero and An Avenger. An Uchiha and a Hokage. I think of it like that, 'cause it could have easily been reversed. I could be the one after revenge and you could be the faithful friend. Of course I'm not sure if you'd appreciate the situation as much as I do... After all, every sentence you've spoken out aloud in my presence lately, cause we can't really call it talking can we, ends with the word 'Jutsu'.

Is there just something wrong with Uchiha? On some fundamental level? Are you hardwired to betray those closest to you? Maybe you all just missed a few too many hugs then became traitorous bastards... Maybe it's just your family specifically. I mean both you and Itachi betrayed those who held your trust. Maybe your family's line is tied closest to Madara? You know? In a straight line, not branched off and vaguely related like most...

All I know is after I killed him and you took his Rinnegan eyes, it's become so much more difficult to kill you. I'm just glad those eyes never fully manifested for you. Sure you have better reaction time and your jutsu is stronger but that's a fair trade off right? I can still keep up. Imagine if I had to deal with 7 emo-assholes instead of one? Still...you kept your Mangekyo's jutsu, so all's well. For you at least. A Mangekyo Sharingan with the added benefit of wider sight, and stronger jutsu, courtesy of the Rinnegan. And a crap load of jutsu in your arsenal.

Though I gotta thank you, a few of them really helped me improve the village's defences a helluva lot... The rest of them, hell all of them, kept me on my toes... I've faced down the most notorious shinobi with no fair and no injury because of how hard I had to work to keep up with you...

Who would have thought all those years ago, academy days, two kids with barely any C-Rank techniques would come to be awarded the Rank X as a shinobi... People knew you'd go far. You were the Uchiha Prodigy... Though you don't deserve that title. Not hard to be a prodigy when you're the last one left. But that's just the bitter Dead-Last in me talking.

Heh makes me wanna laugh you know that? They had to invent a rank for us, that's how much our power grew... But then again, what else could they do? I mean we both single-handedly took on the bingo book's contents. Funny enough we split them down the middle unknowingly. 24 S-Ranks, 90 A-Ranks 14 B-Ranks. And that was just Iwa and Konoha's books. We did split Kumo, Ame, Suna and the smaller villages' books too. Oh and of course akatsuki... We are the two most dangerous shinobi alive. And we can't even kill each other...

We've been trying for 10 years after all. Well you've been trying for 10. Me? I've only seriously tried for 7. That was when I realised you truly were too far gone to be saved... When you did that to us... To her... Ended a life which had not truly begun... After years of devotion to you, you took away Sakura-chan... Killed her before she could even think to defend herself. Though she seemed content to die by your hand. I should also bring up how you killed Sai. But even after all these years I don't care about him. Logically I should feel bad for the death of a comrade... even though he was only briefly one... Did you know his secret mission was your assassination? My word changed his mind. And that change brought about his death.

Died fighting for an ideal inspired in him by yours truly. An ideal he didn't have the time to fully grasp or understand. And kami knows I feel bad enough for the countless I've sent after you believing in that same conviction...at least they died believing in a better world right? Should mean something, right?

Yeah. Sounds hollow to me too... With no authority I still asked of everyone if they could spare you if they came across you. I thought you could still be redeemed. I thought you were still my Bastard Brother.

'It's Orochimaru's influence' I said. 'He's just lost his way' I said. 'It's the loneliness that drove him mad, and I can bring him back from those depths... 'I said,' after all I did the same for Gaara... '

Kakashi-sensei always used to say I have an ability to convince people to my way of thinking simply because it was pure and right and I could get through any hard exterior...wade through any darkness. Seems you are the only one immune to it...

Speaking of Kakashi-sensei, did you know he went the same way as his father? He felt he had failed too many of his trusted comrades... So you and I are what's left of Team 7... By the way, and I hope you don't mind, I outlawed team 7. In future when they assign teams they'll skip from 6 to 8. But they tell the genin team 7 is still active. Deep cover operatives they say. Maybe we shouldn't lie to our genin so much; by 'we' I mean the village.

But...

My words are hollow now, barely a shell of what they once were. I let go of the exuberance and enthusiasm. They say it's part of the reason I'm a Hokage now. They think its cause I've matured and calmed down. Truth is, I lost a big part of me every time we fought and I can't help but feel that this is my last piece. After this there'll be nothing left... Maybe that means it's our last fight?

Maybe that means you can finally come home? Heh, there I go again. The sentimental fool still lives on in me, ne Sasuke? If I'm to be honest, what I told you all those years under the samurai bridge was true. I just didn't realise the extent of it at the time. I told you we would fight again, and that we would both die. I don't know about you, but after each fight...each failed attempt... I die a little inside. And maybe that's a little dramatic but it is what it is. Against my best intentions I'm becoming an Emo-Bastard.

Sometimes I think about it all... And they aren't good thoughts believe me. We had a few years of mild dislike of each other, then a year and a half as a genin team, then 3 years of trying to save you. Then this, 7 years trying to kill you. What you said here 10 years ago when it all began was true. I have always been naïve... Well it stopped 5 years ago, but still. It was true. Thinking that after spending 18 months listening to you say; 'Hn' and fight with me that we were the best of friends. We barely knew each other.

Who knew that little kid I saw on the pier once would grow up to try to kill me?

What we did know was that someone had experienced a similar pain that we had. We took pleasure in that we weren't alone. And while it is sad that it came at another's expense, I can't help but wonder what if we tried to get to know one another beyond the loneliness, arrogance and cockiness, could things be different? It did work for me and Gaara...

I guess it's time I stop reminiscing now, ey Bastard? You've ensured we're both warmed up. Now the real fight can begin. Now the last fight can begin. Maybe you can take me with you. That way I don't have to explain to the elders why I left the village. Don't have to apologise to Tsunade-Baa-chan. Don't have to tell Hinata why I couldn't take her on our first date. Don't have to look at Konohamaru and realise Moegi and Udon were some of your victims and they only tried reasoning with you because they thought of what I would have wanted. Don't have to put on a fake smile for what's left of teams 8, 9 and 10. Don't have to look in the mirror when I get back and see the last ten years of my life were a pointless waste...trying to save you from the darkness you've long since embraced...

Anyway, you just pulled your arm from my chest, guess it's time we end this right?

Weird how much you can think of in the space of one Chidori to the chest.

One last fight between the two of us. Maybe they'll write about us? Remake the statues at this place in our image...

Maybe I owe you two more words- two last words- before we die?

I think I do.

"Goodbye, Teme."

A/N: Thoughts? reviews? oh and if i get atleast 5 reviews asking for it, i'll add in sasuke's point of view. So... fingers crossed? maybe we'll have a two shot instead


	2. Avenger

AN: the long awaited part 2. the second shot. hope you enjoy readers

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Loser…

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Idiot…

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Dead-Last…

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Dobe…

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Scaredy cat…

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Team-mate…

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Comrade…

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Naruto…

Damn you!

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Get out of my head!

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Why won't you just kill me and be done with it! I told you a long time ago I'm irredeemable and you should give up.

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I wish you could let me go Naruto… all these years I've done nothing but cause you pain… my trusted comrade. My goals were in the way of yours, why didn't you just take me out… you mock me. Your actions mock me… Damn you!

I should have killed you. Sparing you on a whim was my worst mistake. A weak idiot like you has no place in this world.

Why do you always have to be the good guy! Why can't you take my life...? I don't deserve it anymore… living… if you can call this existence of mine living…

You can't kill me because you are weak, you don't have any hatred in you. You lack the drive to kill me. Damn it! I am Itachi to you, brother…

Why do you have to be a mirror image of me! You're the version of me where I don't go off for vengeance. Of course I actually have brains and I'm not that loud but it's very similar… at the same time… I'm what you could have become... but you have light in your life… while you had nothing you built your own light…. I chose to live in the shadows, constantly shunning the light…

What was it I said to your friend Gaara? Oh yes… _I have long ago closed my eyes to the light. My goals exist only in the dark._

Living in a family where no-one showed any emotion. Where I was always seen in the shadow of something else rather than as a person, you lived in the shadow of the Kyuubi… in the shadow of its destruction of that backwater village and her people… People hated you, they expected the Nine-Tails to jump out and get them. And you were shunned because of it. I lived in the shadow of a clan so obsessed with their Doujutsu that everyone outside Uchiha was seen as below us. That arrogance spread to within the ranks of my clan. Those without the eye were seen as outcasts and shunned… I was shunned as well…to be the son of the Clan head, the younger brother of the prodigy and show no skill whatsoever….

I don't deserve that title…Prodigy… prodigy in comparison to who? To what ideal? I was merely a child who had started his training earlier than usual. I wasn't a prodigy. If a child starts reading at the age of two and another starts at the age of four, the younger one will be seen as a prodigy simply because he started sooner. The older will most likely assume the title Dead-Last… why they aren't seen as children is beyond me…

You were more of a brother to me than Itachi could ever be…. I always thought no-one knew my pain, but none knew it better than you, Naruto….… In fact, that's what I said to you the first time we were here. With me trying to kill you… and you looking back at me with those eyes…. Eyes that have seen and felt loneliness… Those eyes that say "I've been there… I understand your pain… I know it's hard to let it go, but you can do it…. I did, let me help you…"

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I wish I could just give in, swallow my pride and accept it. But… my pride won't let me… that same Uchiha pride that caused the downfall of each of us wielding the Sharingan… Itachi was right… I always cling to my foolish existence… even now when I know it's better for me to die. When my life is in the way of your goals… I guess to be truthful; I knew you couldn't kill me. Not that you lacked the ability… no you certainly had that. Mastering four of the elements through sheer willpower… having so much chakra… if I never got the second upgrade to my eyes when I did… you would have ended this sooner… so no, you don't lack the ability. You lack the conviction. You always have…. I tried to get you to harden that heart… after I … did that…after I … stole her… from you… from myself…

Sakura…

No I never deserved her. You did though.

I'm truly sorry Naruto… words can't possibly explain my sorrow and regret… I killed her… with my bare hands… she will never again look at me like she did before… I am disgusted by what I became…

I honestly did it in hopes it would drive you to forget me and move on… I knew you had people who could help you regain your sanity once the deed was done. But… things didn't go as planned… forgive me my brother…

Each time we fought you tried to convince me to leave the path of revenge and to come back to the village… each time you reached out your hand… and each time I spat in it…. I should have listened to you back on the hospital rooftop when we were genin… I should have reached out to you and Sakura…. I'm only just discovering how deep regret and self-hate go….

Why is it that you don't take our fights seriously until after I land a fatal blow? Not that fatal means anything to you… Kyuubi fixes you up as soon as I hurt you… I'm ready for you to kill me now Naruto… it has to happen in the right way as well. We have to be fighting full force and your attack must be stronger than mine… there should be no doubt in your heart…. I have already caused you enough pain…

I just wish you could hear my thoughts

It's time for that fatal blow again.

Damn Kakashi for teaching me this.

"Chidori!"

I hate doing this to you, Naruto. I hate the few seconds my arm stays I your chest. Please don't make me live to see tomorrow. Don't make me shove another one through your chest.

I wonder… are you ready to end me yet?

Could this be the final fight?

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Am I hoping in vain. Guess who's the naïve one now.

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What… did I hear you right? Are you finally going to do it? You whispered it so softly I could barely hear you. Thank you for saying it. I will treasure it forever.

"**Goodbye Teme**"

'_Thank you, Naruto'_

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_AN: i felt i just couldnt leave this without a conclusion, so there is a conclusion chapter as well which im uploading immediately after this. hope you enjoy._


	3. The End

AN: _THE END_...

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In the village hidden in the leaves many people went to and fro and enjoyed their days and the peace, which their new Hokage had brought, immensely.

Uzuki Yugao was busy training her new replacement as Anbu Captain.

"You're doing well, Neji. I'm glad you've improved so much. I'll make a note of it to let Hokage-sama know you are ready to take over."

"Thank you Yugao-Taicho, but it's simply a result of your training."

Elsewhere Senju Tsunade the slug princess was reviewing her suggestions for Naruto over expensive sake, which was on the house of course. Ex-Hokage was still Hokage. What made it better was the absence of a nagging Shizune. A smile escaped her at the thought of never having to hear those words again

"Tsunade-sama, it's time to get back to work. No more sake"

Those words made her shudder…

Though she wondered how the brat was doing today, maybe she'd pop in and pay him a visit.

One newly instated Hyuuga Clan Head was watching her sister scramble around in preparation for the biggest event of her life. Hanabi was amazed at the sight of her sister acting so strange and… un-kunoichi-like. If that was even a word.

Hinata had long since proven she was stronger and kinder than Hanabi, and was the real reason Hanabi was a Clan head so young. They allowed it only because Hinata had promised to stay on as an adviser to her. And with all that in mind, to see Hinata run back and forth getting a selection of outfits, doing, re-doing and doing her make up a third time… and even though she seemed so busy and out of it and confused. One thing was abundantly visible of Hinata's features:

Happiness.

She was preparing for a date that was four days away. Granted it was with the Hokage, and her life-long love. Four days was still too far away to be preparing… at least for Hanabi this was the case.

"I'm happy for you sister."

"Thank you Hanabi, I only hope it goes perfectly."

"No worries sister, You've already stolen his heart. With all the preparation you're doing you're sure to steal his breath on the day"

Hinata let out a giggle at the silly thought and hugged her sister. She couldn't keep still her joy was so immense.

"And then we'll have to find a new Hokage"

A vase in which Hinata had placed the rose Naruto gave her, along with the invitation to their date, suddenly cracked along the side facing the sound village.

Neither sister noticed it though.

A while later a semi-inebriated Tsunade walked up the many steps to her old office, her original plan was to jump through the window like he would… but as drunk as she was… it simply wouldn't do for the last legendary sannin to die from a slip and fall accident…

As she entered the outer chamber she saw Shizune at her desk and the Anbu captain sitting upright waiting.

"Here for our leader I see?"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama"

"Bah, none of that. I'm retired, no longer Hokage. Let's say Tsunade-san instead."

She turned to the secretary, "Is he in Shizune?"

"No my lady, he didn't say when he'd be back.. In fact he didn't even tell me he left. "

"Maybe he did what I always threatened to do and bolted at the sight of the paper work."

Tsunade and Shizune laughed at that but there was a little uncertainty on Shizune's face, she was scared he'd done just that. Yugao though was caught between incredulity and hilarity, what helped her maintain her silence was her years of training, but even she'd cracked a smile.

This was the scene Hinata arrived to. She had come to ask Naruto for the location and time so she'd know what to wear for their date. Tsunade saw her first.

"Our Hokage is quite popular to have so many beautiful women waiting to see him"

Hinata blushed but responded, "Is he busy though? If we're all waiting…"

Shizune came to her rescue before Tsunade could tease her any further. "He isn't in Hinata, how about this, I'll tell him to use the Hiraishin to visit you all as soon as he gets in, okay?"

"That's if he survives your tongue-lashing."

The glare was enough to silence the blond who said it and give the ladies their cue to leave with Hinata mumbling a thank you behind her

The three Kunoichi reached the bottom of the tower and each could appreciate the sounds of a bustling and flourishing village.

"I will take my leave now. Hinata-San, Tsunade-San, it was nice to see you both."

"You don't have to leave so soon Yugao, we ladies of the village should get together more often. I'm sure miss soon-to-be-Uzumaki here won't mind, huh Hinata?"

Hinata didn't respond though, her attention was drawn right at the crowds in front of the tower. Yugao immediately followed her line of sight, Tsunade however tried to catch Hinata's attention once more before she too looked to what had caught Hinata's attention so thoroughly.

Civilians and ninja alike parted in front of the lone figure who appeared in their midst. He was covered in blood and had bits of flesh that weren't his own on his skin and clothing. His pace was slow and from Hinata's perspective it seemed as though one arm was longer than the other. The aura this man gave off was palpable from this distance, and though she could simply turn on her Byakugan and see in an instant, there was a sense of foreboding which stopped her.

Ten more steps the man walked and the image was slightly clearer. The man was carrying a disembodied head in his grasp blood still trailing from it.

The civilians and ninja could only stare in incredulity as this man walked by, caked in blood and leaking more of the life giving liquid behind him. What shocked them even more was the identity of the two men. Well one man and one head.

He was finally close enough to see clearly, though no-one said a word. Hinata could make out the faces. The two most dangerous shinobi to have stood. The two who could most likely bring the world down if they so desired. Light and dark. The two sides to one coin.

"Hinata…"

At his mention of her name, her breath finally returned and allowed her to speak

"You killed him?"

He could only nod and wait for the peace of death or sleep to take him, whichever these people who stood so unnaturally still around him chose.

Then he saw who stood next to Hinata and spoke his final words before the darkness took him

"Told you… that I'd… bring him… back… baa-chan"

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AN: i really and truly believe this one is done there is nothing that could possibly happen afterward other than the obvious. I hope you enjoyed. Review please, so i know if you liked it or not. review and enjoy a cyber cookie.


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